He follows mainly the American crews, but discusses both sides' strengths and weaknesses.

Roosevelt then discusses, year by year, the naval wars on both the Atlantic Ocean and on the lakes of the Americas. He makes several scathing comments on American unpreparedness for the war, putting the blame especially on President Thomas Jefferson. Roosevelt introduces the war by discussing the political and social climates of both Great Britain and America before the war. He tried to analyze the facts as unbiasedly as possible, looking at both American and British documents from the period, as well as some others from Continental Europe.

He decided on chronicling the naval battles between the British and American navies during the War of 1812. Roosevelt set out to write about a subject that both technically and historically challenged him. He had already completed two chapters of the book, and had finished it by December 1881. While attending Columbia Law School and living in Manhattan, Roosevelt began completing research on a book he had started while still at Harvard. Theodore Roosevelt graduated from Harvard University in 1880, and was soon after married to Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt. It is considered a seminal work in its field, and had a massive impact on the formation of the modern American Navy. It covers the naval battles and technology used during the War of 1812. The Naval War of 1812 is Theodore Roosevelt's first book, published in 1882.

Us navy morale war of 1812